1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing search requests. More particularly, embodiments of the invention may relate to systems and methods for brokering a voice search requests that originate on a mobile device to a search engine.
2. The Relevant Technology
The size of the World Wide Web presents users with enormous amounts of data that is just a click away. Almost anything a user desires to learn of, purchase or view can be found on the World Wide Web by entering an appropriate URL in a web browser connected to the Internet. Often, however, a user may not know the URL corresponding to the data the user wishes to find. Thus, search engines have been developed which may assist in locating information on the World Wide Web.
Search engines allow a user to ask for content meeting specific criteria and then retrieve a list of items that match those criteria. Typically a user enters a word or phrase (a “search request”) and a search engine looks for items containing or excluding some combination of the word(s) and/or phrase(s) entered by the user. Traditional search engines maintain indexes which are updated frequently in various manners, including the use of webcrawlers. When a user enters a search request, a search engine looks up its index and provides a listing of best-matching web pages according to its search criteria. Meta-search engines, in contrast, do not maintain an index. Instead, meta-search engines receive a search request, submit it to multiple traditional search engines and then combine the results in some way and present them to the user.
Although many web search requests are initiated from PCs and desktop computers, the evolution of mobile phones to include Internet browsing capabilities enables mobile phone users to initiate search requests from their handsets as well. This may be particularly useful to a device user in need of information but lacking immediate access to a PC or desktop computer. A typical search request may be initiated on a mobile phone by browsing the web to select a search engine and typing in a search request after which the search engine returns its results. Other search requests may be initiated and submitted to a search engine via the SMS protocol after which the search engine may send its results in one or more SMS messages.
Some search engines monetize the processing of search requests using an advertising-based revenue model. Generally, however, a carrier providing service for a mobile device requesting a search does not share the search revenue. Many carriers do receive some benefit insofar as SMS messages or other data are exchanged, but many carriers want to receive more revenue for searches performed on the carriers' respective networks.
Accordingly, there currently exists a need in the art for improving a wireless service carrier's ability to generate revenue from search requests.